Tuesday 29 March 2022

Scottish Widows doubles divestment from fossil fuel supporters

Pensions provider Scottish Widows has announced it is doubling its divestment from firms that pose a risk to environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets.

This will take its exclusions in investments from £1.5 billion to £3 billion for any companies that support fossil fuels.

The company will also divest in any company that generates 10% or more of its revenue from tobacco.

It has stated these measures have been taken to ensure the pensions provider is a responsible investor, looking after six million UK customers and £190 billion in savings.

Maria Nazarova-Doyle, Head of Pension Investments, said: “Taking the long view, industries such as tobacco are at severe risk of becoming stranded assets, as they face intense pressure from investors, regulators, consumers and consistently fail to properly address the social impacts of their products and within their supply chain.

“We stand by our belief that carbon-intensive sources of energy such as thermal coal and tar sands will ultimately be replaced by greener renewable sources such as wind or solar.

“As such, exiting these highly damaging areas and redirecting capital to more climate-aware investments makes perfect investment sense.”